Mtv Hoping To Break Away From The Usual Award-show Fare

September 5, 1986|By John Swenson, United Press International

NEW YORK — The producers of the third annual MTV Awards, heeding the yawns produced by recent Oscar, Emmy and Grammy shows, are revamping its ceremonies to eliminate long speeches and give the show ''more action.''

The three-hour program, which will be telecast live on MTV and syndicated nationally at 9 tonight, is still aimed at highlighting the best music videos of the year. This year the plan is to distance Music Television from other awards events.

''The first and second show were traditional,'' said Les Garland, senior vice president of music programming. ''You're in a theater, everybody's wearing black tie, the winner staggers up the aisle, takes an award from a gorgeous blonde and thanks the world. This year we want it to be frantic, frenzied, more action.''

There will be two locations, the Palladium in New York and the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.

''There is no podium,'' said Tom Freston, senior vice president and general manager of MTV. ''There will be no long-winded thank-you speeches. Instead, the presenters, who will act as hosts, will stand up anywhere within the confines of the Palladium or the Amphitheatre to give their designated awards.''

''We'll open the show with Robert Palmer in Los Angeles,'' Garland said, ''then go directly to New York where the Hooters will get it off. So we'll make a statement in the first 7 minutes that this is a music show as well as an awards show. We're going to try to get 19 songs into the show.''

The idea to open the show up may also have been inspired in part by Eddie Murphy's antics last year. Acting as host, Murphy unexpectedly left the stage and rambled through the audience at Radio City Music Hall, finally ending up in the ladies' bathroom. ''I thought it was one of the most magical moments in the history of MTV,'' said Garland.

Accordingly, the show is set up to promote improvisation. ''Less than 15 percent of the program is scripted,'' said Garland. ''We're flying by the seatf our pants. It's live TV, it's rock 'n' roll, it shouldn't be scripted, it should be loose and there should be a few mistakes. I think the audience will enjoy that.''

Dire Straits and a-Ha lead all groups with 10 nominations for music video awards.

Eight of the nominations Dire Straits and a-Ha received were for the same categories. Both groups were nominated for Best Video, Best Concept Video, Best Group Video, Best Special Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, Best Direction and Most Experimental Video.

Pat Benatar received seven nominations, ZZ Top six, the West Coast band X got five and Robert Palmer and Talking Heads four each.

The nominees were selected by more than 1,700 members of the record and video music industries who chose from 717 videos acquired and exhibited for the first time on MTV from May 2, 1985 to May 1, 1986.

Nominees in the production categories were selected by 200-plus professionals in video production, such as video producers and directors, video editors, art directors and other artists and technicians.